Search for a literal string.
Linux Commands: Use grep -F when the pattern contains regex metacharacters that should be literal.
grep -F -- 'a.b' values.txtExpected output EXAMPLE
a.b
Details
Run in Bash on GNU/Linux in a scratch directory. Tested with the GNU utilities supplied by Ubuntu. Use grep -F when the pattern contains regex metacharacters that should be literal.
Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · GNU bash, version 5.2.21(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) · bash 5.2.21-2ubuntu4; grep 3.11-4build1
Test inputs, results and environment
The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Unprivileged snippet process, external networking disabled, read-only root filesystem, and a fresh temporary working directory. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.
- Architecture / host kernel
- x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
- Snippet identity / locale
- uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged) / C.UTF-8
- Interpreter invocation
bash -euo pipefail -c <published code>- Container image ID
sha256:32dc2d998158b6554c99b73b533f423696a0f3e31e8cbea9db10b5eee9a2fadd- Code SHA-256
f43ffac35bdfc4020f352a0f0c185a36969d03ef0dcfa180ef834794807710ad- Dependencies
- bash 5.2.21-2ubuntu4; grep 3.11-4build1
Test input setup
These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.
printf 'a.b\naxb\n' > values.txt
Observed standard output
a.b
Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.